Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but what it does to the ears is much more impressive. Old ears that have been yearning for it, new ears that are discovering it, fresh ears that are hearing it in a way they never did before — it’s all the aural engagement you could ask for on your welcome return.

And it’s something that both Dean Wareham and Pete Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) can attest to as veteran musicians whose previous works have found new life, necessitating the artists, themselves, to revisit their pasts, both of which will be on display this Saturday as part of the inaugural MTT Fest at the Royal Canadian Legion #1.

In Wareham’s case, it’s a return to his influential late-’80s three-piece Galaxie 500, which released a trio of acclaimed albums before splitting up in 1991 after a four-year run — a fact that may only have served to fuel and possibly increase interest in the Massachusetts-born band long after it was over.

“I think time has been kind to Galaxie 500,” Wareham says from New York, where he lives with his wife and musical partner Britta Phillips. “Not that we were without our fans in the day.”

No, college radio and the UK press were particularly kind to Galaxie and that, in part, helped feed into the success of his next project, Luna, which lasted more than a decade, before the now husband and wife, then bandmates left to form Dean & Britta, who’ve also had their own notable recording career.

But still, despite Wareham having mothballed his early songs, the gorgeous, gauzy, deceptively epic music of Galaxie lived on. It did so with the older ears craving something that may have been the soundtrack to their formative years and was gone just as quickly, while the new ones and fresh ones found something that neither reeked of the era from which it came or lost any of its appeal through time.

“Personally, it defines a time for you, sure, but we (didn’t) sound like what was going on back then,” Wareham says, when asked to analyze it. “On the one hand you had the shoegazing stuff that was going on in England and we don’t really sound anything like that. And it was the early days of grunge all across America, or indie rock, it wasn’t called ‘grunge’ then and it wasn’t just Seattle, it was everywhere people were making this hard rocking fusion of punk and metal or hard rock — and we weren’t doing that. Because we were doing our own thing, hopefully it doesn’t sound like 1990 exactly.”

Actually, the guitarist is hoping it does sound exactly like 1990, or at least Galaxie 500 circa 1990, when he and Britta take the stage with drummer Anthony LaMarca to deliver an entire set of Galaxie 500 faves, something that’s now becoming a regular thing for the three.

Wareham had been approached on a number of occasions to perform the material and finally relented for a show in Spain a couple of years ago. Of course, with tensions remaining between he and original Galaxie rhythm section — Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, ironically also a couple who’ve been performing under the name Damon & Naomi since the band’s split — he thought it made sense to let that lie and go it with the band he has now.

Still, he says they’ve gone to great lengths to stay true to the way the music was made back then, noting that it took time to get them to a point where they ebbed and flowed properly and where he was even able to once again sing them in the proper register.

“People appreciate hearing the songs as they were originally done,” he says, noting he, as a performer is the same. “It’s fun and emotional at times, just like it probably is for our listeners, to go back and listen to records you loved as a young person. It’s exciting to play songs you haven’t played in 15 or 20 years and get a thrill out of it.”

For Kember, the trip down memory lane hasn’t been as difficult a one, considering he’s never fully put the past to bed. A founding member of Britain’s ’80s drone and psychedelic pioneers Spacemen 3 which, likewise, split acrimoniously — albeit in ’89 after almost a decade and four albums — he later went on to form other projects such as Spectrum and Experimental Audio Research (E.A.R.). His sets, he admits, have always featured some of his past, and this weekend’s solo performance will be no exception.

“I’ve always done some stuff, even if it’s only been one or two songs,” Kember says on the phone from the UK, noting that his willingness to do more these days has less to do with the passage of time than the renewed passion for it. “But it’s not so much necessarily the distance more that it seems for whatever reasons there’s a new audience that’s found this stuff — through the Internet mostly I suppose. Often times it’s playing those songs to people that it’s new to anyway. I’ve always liked playing the songs.”

Spacemen 3, the act he co-founded with Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce, especially, is being discovered and appreciated by a younger crowd thanks to a new psych movement. Many are following the electronic bread crumbs back to the electronic and indie rock act, something that Kember finds surprising, albeit frustrating that many artists, like him, aren’t directly benefiting from it financially through album sales.

“I find the Internet a strange and bewildering place every day. But it’s nice that people (are finding the music),” he says. “With Spacemen 3, relatively, it didn’t sell that many records back in the day and the kids are still into it and it’s great, really. The good side is that people are going out to live shows, which is a definite bonus. It’s definitely getting a lot of bands out there who probably wouldn’t have been touring if their record sales weren’t crucified by downloading.”

As to whether or not he counts as one of those acts, he laughs. “No, I’m trying to stop doing live performances. I’m kind of feeling a bit long in the tooth for it.”

Instead, Kember’s finding, like his music, new life as an in-demand producer, having worked on albums by such artists as Panda Bear, MGMT and fellow MTT-ers Sun Araw and Cheval Sombre — the latter of which, was released on Double Feature, the label of Wareham and Phillips, who also played on the album and have, too, been produced by Kember. (As an added treat, the four will collaborate during Sombre’s MTT set.)

He notes that when younger acts do approach him, now, they do so less because they want to replicate what he did in his own musical past, but rather because they appreciate that past — something he finds gratifying.

“Sometimes in some bands you can hear the influence more than others but . . . I think most bands are made up of a whole complex of influences. And it’s not really necessarily that people can think that you can help them make music like you made. They just recognize that you can help them in what they want to do.

“A lot of the (Bands) that I work with I wouldn’t say it’s in the same vein as Spacemen 3 or Spectrum. . . . I think they’re fans of the music, really, and that’s all there is.”

Wareham is also appreciative of those making music now, who may not wear their love of his former work on their sleeves but have a place for it in their hearts.

“As a musician there’s nothing you enjoy more than other musicians — especially if you like them — come up to you and say that the records were important in their development,” he says. “Like Matt Hollywood from Brian Jonestown Massacre was like, ‘I learned to play guitar by playing along to Galaxie 500 albums.’

“That’s nice to hear.”

With any set of ears.

Dean & Britta, Sonic Boom and others perform at the Royal Canadian Legion #1 as part of the MTT Fest, which takes place at various locations Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and an event schedule please go to mttfest.eventbrite.com.mbell@calgaryherald.com Follow on

Twitter@mrbell_23

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